Trump live: President accused of ‘unprecedented corruption’ after record-breaking State of the Union address – UK Times

Writing on BlueSky, Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner explained why he stormed out of the chamber last night:

“Walked out of the State of the Union because I couldn’t sit through hours of Trump’s lies. Americans know the truth: he’s spiking prices and wrecking our economy. We’re a better country than this.”

The Huffington Post is calling this the most cringeworthy moment of the night from Texas Rep. Troy Nehls and it is very hard to disagree.

Here’s Andrew Feinberg on the moment the judges representing the highest court in the land were rebuked by the president (again) for ruling last week that the emergency declaration behind his reciprocal tariffs program was unlawful.

This was ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl’s take on last night’s speech:

The MS NOW host reacted to the State of the Union by accusing the president of “luxuriating” in the gory details of some of the atrocities he alluded to, also saying that, in her opinion, his demeanour had been “wound up and weird” throughout.

Maddow argued that Trump had been less invested in the economic “lies” he was offering than in peddling a “sort of violence porn.”

“He talked about people being covered in blood, gushing blood, blood pouring out of things. He talked about people being on the edge of death. He went into graphic detail on a number of different people’s injuries of a various kind. And in those moments he slowed down, ad libbed a lot, and tried to give seemingly as much sort of gory detail as he could, talking about very bloody scenes.

“He also, I should mention, in talking in very stark detail about a terrible attack on a Ukrainian woman in North Carolina, ad libbed that the woman that the person who had attacked her had gotten into this country because of open borders, which was not at all true. That woman was not attacked by somebody who had come from outside this country.

“But that was the sort of, again, sort of violently pornographic riffing that the president did very slowly throughout the back half of his speech, which made it go on for the longest period any state of the union address has ever gone on before. There were very few actual proposals that were announced.”

The Virginia governor offered some scorching criticism of the president in her official response, accusing him of being more interested in personal enrichment than leadership.

The president called for an end to political violence during last night’s address as he remembered Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA co-founder who was shot dead on a Utah university campus last September.

He called on the late activist’s widow Erika Kirk to stand for a rare round of bipartisan applause and said:

“Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really, martyred for his beliefs.

“In Charlie’s memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God and we must totally reject political violence of any kind.

“There’s been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity and belief in God. This is especially true among young people, and a big part of that had to do with my great friend Charlie Kirk. Great guy.

“We love religion and we love bringing it back and it’s coming back at levels nobody thought possible. Really beautiful thing to see.”

Erika Kirk was visibly moved by the gesture, which came at the end of a day in which far-right conspiracy theorist Candace Owens had announced she had produced a new “investigative” web series discussing claims that the widow had played a part in her husband’s assassination.

President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address on Tuesday to announce that he will present Connor Hellebuyck, goaltender for the Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The House speaker told reporters after the address that he believed Trump had handled the adverse reaction he received from opposition lawmakers “very well” and said the censuring of Texas Rep. Al Green, who was removed for holding up a placard accusing the president of racism, was appropriate.

He stopped short of calling for further disciplinary action, however, saying censure was “shame” enough.

Vice President JD Vance and other Trump administration officials criticized Democrats for not standing up during the president’s State of the Union address when he asked for lawmakers to show their support in protecting U.S. citizens.

“One of the most profound moments of a truly historic speech. While some in Washington prioritize the needs of illegal immigrants, President Trump and this administration will always put American citizens first,” Vance said.

Democrats refused to stand during the moment when Trump was railing and boasting about his administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, who the president has often blamed for violent crimes.

“You should be ashamed of yourself for not standing up,” Trump told Democrats.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung even accused Democrats of “co-signing” murder.